The journeys of Becky, blind from retinitis pigmentosa, and her beauitiful guide dogs.

My little red tether is my anchor in running with my friends. A beautiful guide dog has been my tether/anchor in mobility and independence for 17 years: 1. Pantera 2. Cricket, and now my beautiful 3. Georgina (Georgie). A life of family and friends is my joy and anchor in life.

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. CC Scott

Friday, June 6, 2008

Understanding RP

What is Retinitis Pigmentosa ? -- I was diagnosed with RP at age 18 . . .as I look back 25 years later a pretty interesting age to get thrown the curve "you are going blind and there is not anything we can do about it." For the past 25 years, my vision has continued to decrease- basically your peripheral vision continues to decrease, central vision becomes fuzzy and generally the end result is no vision. Currently, I have about 5 degrees of vision remaining in my left eye . .with still pretty good acuity 20/60 and the right eye is fuzzy. So, if you close one eye and make a fist and put up to your other eye so that you can see a peephole out of that eye -- try walking around and you will see the value of a guide dog and have an understanding of what I can see at this moment. One with RP lives with the uncertainty of not knowing when it will change and further degeneration will happen. My life is full of joy -- I am glad for this 5 degrees and hope it will stay a little longer ...